No rubber stamp for EPA's agenda

For the past two weeks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been scrambling to prevent Congress from doing its job and standing up to the Environmental Protection Agency’s global warming power grab.

Now he has a new way to rubber stamp the EPA’s agenda, while providing political cover for wavering Democratic senators. It’s called the Baucus amendment – proposed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). And it’s a sham.

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POLITICO 44

First, a little history. The 1970 Clean Air Act was never designed to be a global warming law and is ill-suited for that purpose. Its principal tools are old-fashioned, command-and-control regulations that impose enormous costs. Moreover, there is no existing control technology for greenhouse gases — making a Clean Air Act approach almost nonsensical.

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the House Democratic Caucus, had earlier spoken against this use: “This is not what was intended by the Congress,” Dingell said, “and by those of who wrote that legislation… So we are beginning to look at a wonderfully complex world which has the potential for shutting down or slowing down virtually all industry and all economic activity and growth.”

(Yet, bizarrely, Dingell voted not to stop the EPA in a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee vote.)

To get away with using a law designed for a problem — local and regional toxic air pollution — that couldn’t be more unlike global warming, the EPA rewrote the law to suit its purpose. The Tailoring Rule requires permitting for sources of greenhouse gases emitting more than 75,000 tons, though the Clean Air Act sets the threshold at 100 or 250 tons, depending on the type of facility. The EPA did this because applying the law as written would create, it correctly noted, “absurd results.”

Now, the Senate has a chance to stop the EPA’s global warming power grab. They can stand up for the Constitution and the principle that the people’s elected representatives make the laws.

Or they can rubber stamp what the EPA is doing, allowing a barrage of regulations that could send energy prices skyrocketing, cripple U.S. industry and help our international competitors, including India and China.

A vote for the Baucus amendment is a vote for that rubber stamp. It would codify the EPA’s Tailoring Rule into law, approving the transformation of the 1970 Clean Air Act into an extreme global warming regulatory regime that could prove more costly than even the cap-and-trade bill, which was rejected last Congress.

Readers' Comments (23)

So why would so many in Congress and the executive branch be pushing for this if it will do no good in helping to relieve the problems they claim to be trying to solve?

Well, the big dirty secret in Washington is that most of the money they spend has nothing to do with solving the problems they claim to be trying to solve.

There are businesses that stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars buying and selling carbon credits. They are heavily invested in the campaigns of many in Congress, particularly in the Democratic party. They give a few million to Congressional campaigns, and Congress gives them billions in taxpayer dollars.

Why would Obama ban drilling in the Gulf, then give two billion dollars to Brazil to help them drill in the Gulf? Because that two billion goes to a company whose majority owner is George Soros, who gave a few million to Obama's campaign.

Why is there a Department of Education? Why, to allow the members of Congress who get millions from the teachers union to return billions of taxpayer dollars back to the unions.

Why is Congress pushing so hard for bullet trains when the trains we already have are over-subsidized and under-used and we're in the middle of a recession and having to borrow from Communist China just to keep our government afloat? Why, to reward the transportation unions and the companies that stand to score hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money for a few million invested in Congressional campaigns.

Many in Congress have abandoned the idea of representing the people who elected them. They have abandoned fiscal sanity and the welfare of the country. They are more than willing to sell the taxpayers and the entire economy down the river to get their thirty pieces of silver in the form of campaign contributions.

It's time to rise above this. NO to the EPA, NO to bullet trains. NO he more taxpayer dollars in education with worse results in return. NO to taxpayers funding billionaire George Soros. NO to business as usual in Washington.

Typical hyperbole from the radical right, with no other goal than to preserve the status quo and make sure billion dollar corporations don't have to comply with laws they have been skirting for decades while we argue over semantics.

DC Political Junkie: Mar. 29, 2011 - 6:48 AM EST

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the House Democratic Caucus,

The same John Dingle who faught common sense rules for U.S. auto makers while the Japanese and Germans complied and made billions from the innovations they came up with.

TeamPOLITICO: Mar. 29, 2011 - 5:19 AM EST

The real solution for businesses of all s and for U.S. taxpayers is the McConnell amendment,

TeamPOLITICO: Mar. 29, 2011 - 5:19 AM EST

That sensible approach would leave the question of any future global warming regulations as a question for Congress and U.S. voters. In the meantime, it would spare the economy from a devastating regulatory assault.

That's called " kick the can down the road, and let your kids deal with it" mcconnell has blocked any legislation that might help our country right now because he wants President Obama to fail at any cost, putting party before Country over and over again. The man is not to be trusted because of his own stated goals, he is anti-American. You can not root for a sitting President to fail and be Pro-America.

Its abundantly clear that Democrats wether at the federal or state level do not play fair. They accuse republicans of being the party of No all the while stonewalling the will of the public at every turn. Instead of seeing their historic loss of the last elections as a warning that they are on the wrong track at every level, they forge ahead as if they never lost a single vote. It shows the total contempt for the common voters that the elitist rulers have. The only way to end their near dictator ship is to vote them out of office once and for all.

Sadly too many liberal brainwashed young people have been made pawns in this game, reclaiming our schools should be a first priority, the government involvement is only playing into democrats hands of creating more liberal voters blinded to the real goals of the left. Our very way of life is at stake in this freedom verses socialist state mentality.

The only way to end their near dictator ship is to vote them out of office once and for all.

Remember what happened the last time we tried that? 9/11, The Iraq war, and the greatest financial crisis since 1929, you must have a really short memory.... I don't and hopefully niether do most Americans. Here's the latest Rasmussen poll BTW....

{ Tuesday, March 01, 2011

The number of American Adults identifying themselves as Republicans fell for the second straight month in February. The number of Democrats fell as well.

Now, just 35.1% of Americans consider themselves to be Republicans. That’s down from 35.4% in January and 37.0% in December.

The number calling themselves Democrats fell to 34.3%. That’s down a bit from last month but up slightly from two months ago.} ....So that means there is a fully a third of Americans who do not affiliate themselves to either major political party making your statement about "the will of the public" somewhat meaningless. If either party did what we sent them to do things would be much better, we need a new American party to set the agenda back on track.

Why do we care what a conservative hack who can't keep a job thinks about anything? We saw the disasters in the gulf and Japan and know that it is our responsibility to protect our environment. The author is a conservative tool and that should be noted by Politico.

Why do we care what a conservative hack who can't keep a job thinks about anything?

Fair point. You and those in your "we" don't care what anybody else says. This story has been hot for a week and this article is a good summary of the conservative position. Concern for AGW is right up there with concern for skateboard accidents. And the EPA is backdooring stricter CO2 rules than cap and trade wanted. The rules will reduce the energy available to America and America's standard of living is based on energy.

The rules are a bad idea. The rules lower the American standard of living and provide no provable benefit. The EPA rules should be stopped. You and your "we" may feel that no price is too high to offer to the AGW agenda. But, if you and your "we" want to change the way America lives, do it in the Congress, not in EPA rules. Support for the AGW agenda is fading all over the world. I hope the pubs win this one, for both our sakes.

i remember when nixon created the epa. i was 15-16 years old. small town. local restaurant owner hoisted a sheet with''EPA IS A COMMUNIST FORM OF GOVERNMENT'. everybody thought the guy was a loon. huh. a prophet he was.

Defund the EPA now while we can still afford to fill our gas tanks and heat and light our homes, even if it is with those pitiful curly bulbs. The religious zealots in the EPA do not have the authority under law to do what they are trying to do, so by zeroing out their budget, they won't be able to complete their take over of America.

Has not history taught us anything? Take a look at these leaders and tell me what do they have in common. Stalin,Mao, Hitler,Woodro Wilson and now Obama " SOCIALISM" what did it gain but destruction what did they seek control!! No different than today its all about control but yet the very citizens of this country who try to speak out are demonize by the left!

Today the divison of this nation is cause by a few people (Listen to Obama how he splits us) this country as it was back then. Take a look back at History and you will an overwhelming similarities After Wilson came Harding take alook what he did in his term. To me the change of our country goin down hill began when God was remove from schools then the assination of Kennedy then it began to fail under Johnson, to me at no time did we really recover and today it has gotten to the point our citizens are fighting each other now with no change in sight.. I speak of both parties aswell when I see the demise of this once proud nation. May God have mercy on our souls!

It is hard to believe that there are still people who believe in global warming when there hasn't been any statistically significant warming for 13 years. The worldwide temperatures for the last 2 months have been slightly below the 30 year average. Compare this to the predictions of a 2 to 4 degree temperature rise during this period and an iron-clad promise that there would be warming for at least 300 years with no possibility of stopping it with La Nina, solar variations or any of the other factors that pre-manmade warming temperatures were controlled by.

If you believe in man-made warming there is no explanation for the current plateau in temperature. There is no explanation for periods of warming and cooling such as the Medieval Warm Period of the Little Ice Age. You have to believe that while the UN IPCC and the entire global Warming cabal stated that the climate period we are in was impossible we have to now believe that warming causes cooling. It is an insanely ridiculous proposition.

Even more insane is to propose that fossil fuel energy should be choked off and substituted with wind and solar which cannot add a single BTU or kWh of added capacity. The choice is domestic energy or supporting the current administration which is consciously cutting off domestic fossil fuels and forcing dependence on imports. Worse is the fact they are using taxpayer money to support offshore drilling in foreign countries while placing moratoriums on US oil drilling. b 2012 cannot come quickly enough.

You really have to be intellectually challenged to continue to support a theory that today has been so decidedly and unequivocally proven false. Those who support this are woefully uninformed or invariably political sycophants who know better, but support this madness out of blind partisanship.

The very worst sycophants blather on about wars when their support for choking off domestic energy places us in the dangerous position of becoming involved in oil wars such as the one Obama just intitiated.

Now, just 35.1% of Americans consider themselves to be Republicans. That’s down from 35.4% in January and 37.0% in December.

The number calling themselves Democrats fell to 34.3%. That’s down a bit from last month but up slightly from two months ago.} ....So that means there is a fully a third of Americans who do not affiliate themselves to either major political party

24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16

When the sitting president is trying to raise the cost of fossil fuels, choke off supplies, nationalize healthcare plan that is unaffrodable and unworkable, takes over banks and car companies, is responsible for policies that are stalling recovery and is spending the country into oblivion there is no one in their right mind that hopes he doesn't fail.

U.S. and European policy to increase production of ethanol and other biofuels to displace fossil fuels is supposed to help human health by reducing "global warming." Instead it has added to the global burden of death and disease.

Increased production of biofuels increases the price of food worldwide by diverting crops and cropland from feeding people to feeding motor vehicles. Higher food prices, in turn, condemn more people to chronic hunger and "absolute poverty" (defined as income less than $1.25 per day). But hunger and poverty are leading causes of premature death and excess disease worldwide. Therefore, higher biofuel production would increase death and disease.

Research by the World Bank indicates that the increase in biofuels production over 2004 levels would push more than 35 million additional people into absolute poverty in 2010 in developing countries. Using statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Indur Goklany estimates that this would lead to at least 192,000 excess deaths per year, plus disease resulting in the loss of 6.7 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) per year. These exceed the estimated annual toll of 141,000 deaths and 5.4 million lost DALYs that the World Health Organization attributes to global warming. Thus, developed world policies intended to mitigate global warming probably have increased death and disease in developing countries rather than reducing them. Goklany also notes that death and disease from poverty are a fact, whereas death and disease from global warming are hypothetical.

Thus, the biofuel remedy for global warming may be worse than the disease it purports to alleviate.

It is hard to believe that there are still people who believe in global warming

It's not a belief system it is science, which I'm sure will send you into a frenzy of copy and paste, but all your made up foolishness doesn't change the facts, even though you have changed your story!

Dahun: Mar. 29, 2011 - 3:15 PM EST

It is an insanely ridiculous proposition.

here we go...

Dahun: Mar. 29, 2011 - 3:15 PM EST

Even more insane

vintage Bafoonery

Dahun: Mar. 29, 2011 - 3:15 PM EST

You really have to be intellectually challenged

now he's gettin warmed up here come the insults to other posters intelligence IF you don't agree with Bafun's beliefs....

Dahun: Mar. 29, 2011 - 3:42 PM EST

When the sitting president is trying to

...fix all the problems left from the last administrations' criminal behavior he might seem a little busy sometimes, but Bafun takes everything personally and hates President Obama with a blinding passion....